acts: turn the world upside down – putting up a...

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Transcript September 12/13, 2015

Acts: Turn the World Upside Down – Putting Up a Front Aaron Brockett | Acts 4:32-5:16

Well if you’ve got a Bible would you please go ahead and grab it and get to Acts 4. If this happens to be your first time to be with us, I want to welcome you. I’m really glad that you are here. I’d really like to get a chance to meet you sometime soon. The way that we do things around here is we do things in sermon series. So we’ve been working our way through the book of Acts. If this does happen to be your first time here, you can get on the church App or get online to get caught up with all of the messages. We’re just kind of working our way through the Book of Acts together, which really describes to us how the church got its start, and what the church believed, and what the church was supposed to be doing, and then how it systematically swept through the Roman Empire like wildfire. The church gets started in the shadows of the Roman Empire. The irony of that is that the Roman Empire was this really strong and impenetrable looking thing and yet it eventually was shaken to the ground. Rome just crumbled. And the church, which looked really weak and vulnerable, especially in light of the power of Rome, is still around today. In fact, Jesus would even say, way before the Book of Acts all the way back in Matthew 16 as He was speaking to Peter and kind of giving Peter a heads up that he was going to play a pretty big role in the establishment of the church. Jesus said these words. He said, “Listen, I’m going to build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Yet, Jesus could have gone on to say, “But that doesn’t mean that the gates of hell won’t try.” That’s what we were talking about last week and we’re going to continue to talk about this week. We’ve seen that Jesus says to this group of uncertain and unproven 120 followers… Upon His ascension into heaven, He said, “Look, I’m not going to hang around and lead this thing.” Jesus ascended into heaven. And I always thought, and I’ve said this before, I thought it was kind of strange. If I was Jesus I would have hung around at least through Acts 8 and led the church, showed Peter and John the ropes, and said, “Let’s make sure this thing gets off to the right start.” I mean, just this last week, there was a new restaurant that opened up across the interstate. This is not a commercial for them, although I highly recommend it. Pie Fives just started up across the street. I was there twice this week. It was really good-‐free pizza. I’m totally joking, maybe just half off. But we were over there and I couldn’t help but notice that the managers were there, like really making sure that things got off to the right start. Like, “This is a new franchise, wanting to make sure we get off on the right foot.” That’s awesome. I’m all for good pizza. But the church was a little more important, and Jesus could have stayed around and said, “Peter and John, I want to stay around and make sure you guys don’t mess this thing up.” But He didn’t. He ascended into heaven and He said, “Listen, it’s far better for you to have the Spirit in you than for Me to be with you leading this thing.” I think the reason why Jesus said that was because He knew that Peter and John and the rest of the 120 followers would have sat down on the bleachers

Acts: Turn the World Upside Down – Putting Up a Front September 12/13, 2015

Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 2

and watched Him do it. They would have said, “You do it Jesus and we’ll cheer You on,” and that would have defeated the whole purpose. Listen, when you come to Christ it’s not just a salvation card to get you into heaven. But when you come to Christ, it’s an invitation to be on mission with Him in the world in which we live. I said it this way a few weeks ago: Jesus didn’t just go to a cross so that you and I could just go to church and watch other people do ministry. There’s nothing wrong with being served by others, as long as it doesn’t stop there. And it’s real easy in a church to come and let other people show us where to park and we get angry with them. It’s easy to check our kids into the Kid’s Ministry and let other people teach our kids about Jesus, and maybe abdicate that responsibility to others. It’s easy to come into this room and maybe stand and watch other people, very enthusiastic people, sing songs on stage. And it’s easy to come in here and watch a guy in a hoodie. I was just going to get on the record here, you people freak out when I wear hoodies, so I won’t do it again. Anyway, you watch some guy give a sermon and kind of listen and say, “I hope he keeps my attention and I hope I can maybe find something that applies to my life,” and then go home and maybe never really engage, and never really get in the game. You see, this is really, really important because we can’t just gather people together… That’s not even what we want to do, to just gather people together for a church service to where our church service grows bigger and bigger. But actually this isn’t even church at all. This is just the gathering. And when we leave, that’s our opportunity to be the church in our world: where we live, where we work, and where we play. In fact, this is becoming more and more vitally important in the world in which we live. Because I don’t know about you, but I grew up thinking that evangelism was for super-‐star Christians who were really articulate and really knew their stuff. I thought evangelism was, “Let me work up the courage to invite my friend to church, and I’ll let the pastor tell them about Jesus.” How many of you are like, “Yeah, that’s pretty much my definition of evangelism right there. Like, I don’t really even know what I would say if somebody came over to my house, knocked on the door (my neighbor) and said, ‘Hey, could you tell me what you believe and why?’” Would you be able to do that today? Some of you are like, “Aaron, you don’t understand. I can’t talk about my faith at work. They have rules about those things. I’ll get written up.” Listen, don’t get mad at me. I’m not even talking about that yet. I’m just talking about, “Are you willing to get in the game and to be the church out in the world?” because we live in a world where, increasingly, people are not even thinking about coming to church, not even if you invite them. I was reading some statistics this last week that said over the next seven years the number of people who attend church in the U.S. is expected to drop from 17 percent of the population to 14 percent of the population. About 20 percent of churches in the U.S. are growing, and only about 1 percent are growing by reaching people who don’t know Jesus, meaning that a lot of our church growth is basically just shuffling Christians from one church to another.



The Book of Acts describes to us that the hope of the world is not found in gathering more and more people together in a building, but in sending the church out into the world. In fact, there was one study this last week that said 70 percent of people who live in Great Britain (and usually the U.S. follows behind the trends that Great Britain sets)—70 percent of the people over there said they have no intention of ever attending church for any reason: not Easter, not Christmas Eve, not even for a wedding or a funeral. Like, “We don’t have any expectation to go to church.” So what we read in the Book of Acts (which is more relevant than ever) is that our definition of evangelism cannot be, “Well, maybe I’ll invite my friend to Christmas Eve and, Aaron, I’ll let you tell them about Jesus,” because, more than likely in the years to come, they just won’t be here. So as the church we’ve got to be equipped to carry the gospel message outside of our gatherings, our programs, and our events. Now hear me, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the gathering. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the programming or the events, just as long as it doesn’t stop with those things. Jesus wants to involve us in His mission in the world. Now by the time we get to the end of Acts 4, the church is in a pretty sweet season. If you were here last week, you remember what we covered. Peter and John, they preached this sermon. The authorities came against them to say, “It’s not that we intellectually disagree with what you are saying, we actually have proof that you healed the guy, we just don’t like it. So stop talking about Jesus or else.” And the church prayed. They lifted up their voices to God. And they didn’t say, “God, deliver us.” They didn’t say, “God, take away the storm.” They said, “God, help us to endure the storm. Be with us through it.” And the church exploded. We get to this second, really sweet season in the life of the church. The first one was found at the end of Acts 2. The second one is found at the end of Acts 4. Listen to these words. Verse 32, “Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.” Now this just sounds almost so incredible that you are like, “Man did that really even happen?” I don’t know about you, but this does not happen with my kids. They are not like, “Go ahead sister, take my thing.” It’s a part of human nature where we don’t automatically share with others. So this is sort of the church at its best. I’ve been around people before, it’s usually naïve Bible college students, they’ll point out these verses and they’ll say, “Why can’t we just be like that? Why do we have to do all this other stuff? Why can’t we just emulate this?” And I would say, “I’m all for that.” Just understand this. What this is, its’ a snapshot of a really good moment in the life of the church and it’s going to quickly fall apart, like by verse 36. This would be like you looking at the end of Acts 2 and the fellowship of believers at the end of Acts 4, what we just read, and saying, “Why can’t we be like this?” That would be like you watching somebody’s instagram feed and saying, “Why can’t I have their life? Why can’t I have their marriage? Why can’t I have their kids? Let’s just turn in our kids and exchange them for theirs.”



Well keep in mind, chances are, that was a photoshopped image, x pro 2 or whatever it is, and it’s filtered, and it’s made to look like a really good moment. I’m not saying that they’re faking it. I’m just saying it is a moment. Chances are, there’s just as much yelling in their house as there is in yours, and there are just as many dirty clothes on the floor as there is in yours. It’s just a moment. And we see that as we come to verse 36. Here is what I want us to see: Satan wants to stomp out the flame of the church before it ever turns into a blaze. Because the church, as it’s following Jesus and as it’s trusting in God’s Word, is his biggest threat. In fact, it’s his only threat. The only threat to Satan’s kingdom that he’s trying to impose upon the world is the church. He is not threatened by anything else. So he is gunning for her. And the way in which he tries to bring her down, the first thing which we looked at last week is: hostility from outside. It’s basically a pressure to get the church to compromise on God’s Word. If he can’t get you to compromise on God’s Word, then he’ll just go after your character and your relationships. I’d say it this way. You might write this down: If Satan can’t break the church from the outside he’ll attempt to destroy it from the inside. He is just messing things up from the inside. I don’t really want to ask you to raise your hands because I’m pretty sure what the answer will be. But if I were just to ask this question: How many of you have had a bad church experience? I would say that probably, for most of the room, the hands would go up. I’d be right there with you. Maybe there have been some things that have been said or done that have hurt or disappointed you. Or maybe, what’s even worse, some things that weren’t said or weren’t done, or maybe you felt overlooked in the ministry. And that hurts you just as much. Or maybe there was some sort of scandal that went on or something that hurt you. Maybe some of you are like, “You know what? I had an experience where I was like, ‘I’m done with the church altogether,’” and maybe this is the first time you are beginning to put your toe back in the water and come into church. Can I just say this? And we say this often around here. There is no such thing as a perfect church and if you decide to be with us eventually the honeymoon will wear off. And you will see the bride of Christ without her makeup, with full on morning breath. Then what? What do we do? What I want to say is there’s not—that there is never a good reason to leave a church, in fact we talk about that in our membership process. There are good reasons to leave a church. The best one is that you are being sent. We want to actually help you to do that. But we say this to people all the time who maybe come through our membership process and it’s very clear that maybe they are hurting. If they’ve left some things undone, if they’ve maybe left some conversations that they really need to have, or maybe they need to seek forgiveness or extend forgiveness with an old church, that they do that first before they come here. That way they can come here as healthy as possible. You see all of us are going to have a bad church experience and sometimes I’m the reason. And sometimes you’re the reason. So what do we do we do with that? Well we find an example of this in the Book of Acts. This is the first time we see sort of a corruption from inside the church and how God deals with it, and what we can learn.



Acts 4:36, “Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” So understand, this is a continuation of verses 32 through 35. They were being generous. This is how they were being generous. There were some people in the church who had done well for themselves in business, maybe they had an extra piece of property somewhere and they were like, “You know what? I was planning on retiring and building my spread on that property. I’m going to sell it. I’m going to lay the proceeds at the apostles’ feet so that the church can pick up more and more momentum.” It was their way of being on mission with Jesus in the world. There are three people who are specifically mentioned for doing this in this passage. The first one we’ve already heard. His name was Barnabas. Then we are going to read about two others named Ananias and Sapphira. Now, I just want you to know this. Anytime somebody’s name is specifically mentioned, especially in the Book of Acts, it is because they were a leader. We don’t have a membership role of all 120 followers that started the church, but we do have a few specific names because they were leaders. And leaders are always held to a higher standard. Leaders are always responsible for more. So just tuck that in your back pocket because what we are going to read about Ananias and Sapphira is pretty shocking. Look at chapter 5, verse 1. And those of you who grew up in church and you sang the song that went with this passage you know what I’m talking about. And yes, there is a song that goes with this passage: very twisted. So chapter 5, verse 1, “But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” Now what I want you to see right away is that this, initially, isn’t such a big deal. They had some property, just like Barnabas. They decided to be generous, just like Barnabas. They decided to sell it and give the money to the church, just like Barnabas. They actually gave quite a bit. What I want you to know is this passage is not primarily about money, or giving, or stewardship, or anything like that. It is something much, much more than that. They actually could have done with the money whatever they wanted, including not even giving a dime of it. That was their right. That was their freedom to do so. So what did they do wrong? Look at verse 3, “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?’” In other words, you could have done with the money whatever you wanted. “‘Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.’” Se here was there offense. They lied. They were pretending to be something they were not. And that was the issue. It wasn’t so much God wanted all of their money and so He is upset with them because of that. It was that they misrepresented themselves. So here’s how it went down. They saw Barnabas’ generosity and they saw the accolades that he received. People were like, “Man, did you see what Barnabas just gave? That guy is a spiritual giant.” And there was something within their hearts that said, “I want that to.”



Have any of you ever been there? Have you ever desired to appear more spiritual or appear more mature than maybe what you really are? This is what led them to say, “We’ve got some property too and we’ll sell it and give 100 percent of the money away.” But something happened between the date that they announced that and the date of closing. And who knows what happened? Maybe the market took a jump and they got more for the property than what they thought. Maybe two buyers got into a bidding war and they got more from the property. Maybe life just happened and Sapphira came home one day and she’s like, “The family camel just rolled over 100,000 miles and the hot water heater is getting ready to go out, and junior, you know, he needs some braces. Hey, how about we give most of the money, but let’s actually keep a little bit back because we need to pay for some of these things?” And they could have done that if they wanted to. But they actually led everybody to believe that they gave more than they actually gave and that was the offense. You see, their sin was pretending to be something that they were not. They wanted the credit and prestige for some sacrificial generosity without any of the inconvenience or sacrifice of it. So they misled everybody. This is a form of what people have been doing in the church for thousands and thousands of years. We can become self absorbed and self focused when it comes to just ministry in general, and we can make it about the building of our own kingdom rather than the building of God’s kingdom. This has all kind of links back to motivation. I’ve been asked to talk to some preachers on Tuesday about preaching, and one of the things I want to talk to them about is motivation. Why do you want to preach? You’ve got to get that thing right. Do you just want the accolades of others, do you want the spotlight, do you want people to go, ‘Wow, you are wise beyond your years.’” If that’s the case, don’t even preach because you’ll end up building your kingdom over God’s. Why do you want to serve in the Kid’s Ministry? So that people will pat you on the back? Why do you want to go to Africa on a mission trip? You’ve got to deal with these heart motivations and only you can do it. It’s between you and God. To say, “God, why is it that I desire to serve in this particular way?” because if we are not careful we can hijack the mission that Jesus has given us, and really it’s about our own self-‐esteem and our own self worth, rather than contributing to the needs of others and saying, “We want Jesus to be number one in our lives. We want to point our focus toward Christ.” You see Ananias and Sapphira, pretending to be further along with God than what they really were; they were putting on a front. They were not the same people at church as they were at home. If you’re heart didn’t skip a beat there and if your stomach didn’t just drop out on you, then you maybe don’t have a pulse or you’re not paying attention because that is convicting. And it’s convicting for me. ‘ I’ve said this before. I want to be the same man standing up here as I am sitting at the dinner table at home. With my wife singing, it’s hard for me to pose when my wife is singing here. She’s like, “I know you at home.” I want to be the same guy she sees at home that I am up here. Can I just confess to you that sometimes I’m not? Can I just confess to you that sometimes I find myself slipping and I am like, “Where did that come from?” There’s this darkness and this sort of selfishness that’s in my heart that sort of blindsides me at certain moments. I’m not saying that you have to be perfect and that there’s never an impulse. I’m just saying that when it pops itself up, you’re honest about it and you lay it at the Lord’s feet. And maybe you confess it to one. You don’t need to confess it to everybody. If I confessed all my junk, I’d have no friends. But you need to find somebody you can be real with. This pops up.



Several weeks ago, it was right after church on Sunday that’s usually when it happens; I was at my son’s soccer game in Avon. I am driving home and it’s like 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon. I’m tired from the weekend. And I drove by Dunkin Donuts, and I had an impulse. I was like, “I could use a couple of donuts.” Now there’s never, ever a time when you could use a couple of donuts. I was like, “I could really use them. I preached hard this week.” So I pulled in and Dunkin Donuts has a drive thru, that’s awesome. So I pulled up to the drive thru and I ordered at the drive thru and I ordered two donuts, what I wanted. So I go up to the window and the young girl, she handed me the bag, and I just decided to glance in to make sure she gave me the right donuts and I looked in and it was not what I ordered. I kind of knocked on the window, “Hey, this is an honest mistake but not what I ordered.” You just feel like an idiot saying, “These are the wrong donuts.” So I hand them back to her and literally what happened over the course of the next several minutes was that she would go back, grab a couple of donuts that she thought I ordered, bring them back and I would go, “No, that’s not it either.” And she would go back and she would come back and I would be like, “Oh, I’m sorry that’s not it either.” And I started to feel like really dumb and then I started to get slightly annoyed. “Why can’t you just get this right? Am I going to have to get out of my truck and show you what kind of donuts I want?” I’m starting to get to this place where I’m starting to get kind of worked up over this, then all of the sudden it dawned on me, “What if she goes to my church? What if she was there this morning?” Cause here’s the thing about you guys. You guys are sneaky. I just want to go ahead and get this off my chest. I’ll go out, I’ll eat at a restaurant, I’ll go into a store somewhere, and you’ll check me out or whatever. Then, as I am leaving you’ll go, “Nice sermon last week!” I’m like, “Why didn’t you say something?” That’s just confession time. So anyway, it just dawned on me. What if I’m sacrificing my witness over a couple of stupid donuts? I just want to be the same guy in the pulpit as I am at the Dunkin Donuts drive thru, and I hope that you are too. The number one reason that the world says, “I don’t want to bother with the church,” is what?-‐Christians who pretend, pretend they’ve got it all together when they really don’t have it all together. Actually when I say, “Carry the gospel outside these walls,” some of you panic. You are like, “I can never do that for any number of reasons.” All I am asking is to authentically follow Jesus Christ. Don’t wear a mask. Be the same person in here as you are out there. Listen and that will lead to some great conversations. You see, that will lead to this moment where maybe your neighbor will finally come over and say, “Listen man, we’ve been watching you for a while. We know you go to that church that causes traffic jams. We just want to know, what is it about you that’s different?” That might take months, that might take years, or that might take decades for them to get to that place. Think of it like farming. Sometimes we are trying to force the gospel down the throats of people before they’re ready to receive it and we haven’t worked the field enough. We haven’t prepared their hearts enough. So come to that place so that when they do ask you are ready for it. What happens next is really, really disturbing. I just want to give you a heads up. If you’ve never been to church, if you don’t know the Bible very well, what we are going to read next is going to shock you. And



it should. But before your freak out and run out and grab the kids and say, “We’re never coming back to that church,” hold on and let me explain it. Acts 5:5, “When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last.” Let me just go ahead and recommend that you don’t read your kids this story at bedtime, “I just want you to know, the moral of the story is if you don’t give to God, He will kill you. Sleep tight.” That just doesn’t work; wrong application. “And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter said to her, ‘Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.’” So he’s giving her an opportunity to be real. And she didn’t take it. “And she said, ‘Yes, for so much.’ But Peter said to her, ‘How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.’ Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.” So let me just go ahead and say what I know some of you are thinking. This is really, really disturbing, in fact, if I had my way, I would take this out of the Bible but I can’t. It’s in there for a reason. So why is it there? Let me just say a few things. Number one: This is the first time that the word church is mentioned in a book of the Bible that’s all about the church. Does that strike anybody as odd? We are five chapters deep in this thing and the word church has never even been used and that’s what it’s all about. Luke uses the word iglesia, which is the word for church. It is the gathering. He’s already had two opportunities to break this word out when the church was at its’ best: Back at the end of chapter 2, here at the end of chapter 4. But that’s not when he chooses to break out the word. Luke chooses to use the word when the church is at its’ worst, when there’s interpersonal conflict, where there’s a scandal that arises. That’s when he uses the word. I think maybe it’s for this reason: The church never operates more in the power of the Spirit than when He confronts the worst in us. That’s the point. I meet a lot of Christians who say, “Well, I believe in Jesus and I’ve got a private faith. I really don’t need the church.” I would say, “You don’t need the church for your salvation but you do need the church for your growth, not because everything is peachy, but precisely because things, at times, get painful and that’s the way we grow.” When you’re trying to help your kid’s mature but rescuing them out of every painful moment, are they going to mature or are they going to stay immature? They’ll stay immature. If you swoop in and you rescue them out of every moment that they have, if you swoop in and say, “I’m sorry that you’re experiencing that pain,” they will just grow up to be 20, 30, 40, 50-‐year-‐old boys and girls. But you’ve got to, as painful as it is, let them go through it and support them through it. You see, you’re part of a church not because everything always goes your way, not because you’re always going to enjoy what is happening, not because you’re never going to get hurt, but precisely because you will at times. And Jesus says, “Stay, and endure, and extend the grace that has been given



to you. As iron sharpens iron, so we sharpen one another.” I’ve said this before: The friction is what shapes. So this is when Luke brings out the word church. Don’t run away from the problems, face them. Number two: The church is still in its infancy and therefore everything is very, very fragile. The cement is still drying and God isn’t going to let anything threaten the mission of the church. Remember, those of you who are parents, you had your very first baby and you brought your baby home from the hospital? Were you like overly defensive, like overly protective? We were. I remember when we brought our son Connor home from the hospital. He was just a couple of days old and he was just so tiny. We bring him in and to everybody who came over and said, “Can we hold your baby?” I was like, “Well, wait for the background check to come back. Why don’t you lather yourself up with hand sanitizer? And could you burn your clothes and put on that hazmat suit? Then you can hold him for a couple of seconds.” This is His baby and the church is still very fragile. So there are some extreme things that happen in the Book of Acts that we don’t see every weekend, do we? Already we’ve seen tongues of fire fall down from heaven. We’ve seen Peter and John heal a lame man. That doesn’t happen every weekend. And also we’ve seen God strike down dead a couple of people who lied. That doesn’t happen every weekend—and I’m grateful. Because Ananias and Sapphira, they haven’t done anything that every single person is this room isn’t guilty of. And so instead of looking at this passage and saying, “How mean is God?” Say, “How gracious is He? We’re still alive.” Here’s the third thing: Ananias and Sapphira, I do not believe were condemned to hell. Nowhere does it say that God condemned them to hell. I don’t think they lost their salvation. I still think they were under God’s grace. God is just basically saying, “Get up here guys or you are going to make a further mess of things in the church. I’d rather you be here with Me.” So can I just ask this question? What makes a great church? How do we stay on mission? I want you to be on mission with us. I don’t want to gather just a bunch of people to come in and watch other people do ministry. How do we be on mission? Well, at a very high level I would just say this. Men, and women, and children who resist the urge to pretend that they are not… Men and women who refuse to make the church experience all about themselves, that we just come in and we are very real. We are just trying to figure this thing out and we bumped into this guy name Jesus who has given us life and now He is teaching us about a better way to live. Model ourselves after John the Baptist. I love John the Baptist because he is a guy who had all this notoriety, all this fame. He had the spotlight of ministry on him. And then his cousin Jesus shows up and takes all the attention away from him, “John, how do you feel about that?” And I love his response. “Well, He must increase and I must decrease. More of Jesus, less of me, until it is Christ alone.” You see, the process of sanctification, which is a fancy word for growth, it’s a fancy word for maturity in Christ, which happens when we gather together, is basically pushing more and more of our selfish selves out of our heart, and filling it more and more with Jesus. So here is a prayer you can pray this week: God, help me to develop my character rather than manage my image. You see, that’s what Ananias and Sapphira were doing. They were managing their image and



they were ignoring their character. You see, they wanted something admirable. They wanted a generous heart. They wanted others to say, “Way to go,” but instead of taking the long road toward developing a generous heart, they took a short cut. Another word for that is hypocrite. You see, in the Greek world, they would gather people together in the amphitheaters and these actors would be up front and they would play different characters. They would take a mask off and put a different mask on. And the Greek word for actor was hypocrite. It’s faking a relationship with God that you really don’t have or desire to have. Here’s the thing. You can hide from just about everyone in your life, but there’s always at least one person, even like right now, there’s one person who knows the real you. You’re not fooling them. It’s usually the person you live with, the person you are married to, the person or the people that you are raising. They know the real you and eventually you’ll get tired and your character, the real you, will end up showing. I remember years ago my grandfather who was in ministry for a long time, he was a preacher, was telling me about this guy in his 20s who came in to see him. This was in the 1970’s. The young man was telling my grandfather why he was struggling with God. And he said, “My mom and dad took me to church every week but they never really explained it to me, they never really told me why we were going.” And he said, “My dad owned a big car dealership in town and when I was old enough I started to work for my dad.” And listen to what this guy said. He said, “I went to church with the man every Sunday and saw him sing the songs, shake the hands, wear the smile, and listen to the sermons. And then I would go to work for him during the week and I would watch him every day at the car dealership lie, cheat, and swindle people out of their money.” He said, “It wasn’t real.” You see, oftentimes—this should hit us as parents—we can raise our kids in church but not necessarily in Christ. When they get old enough they’ll walk away from both. Because it is not real, it’s not authentic. And I’m not saying this at anyone; I’m saying this with you because I’m, right now, in the throes of the battle. My eldest child, my son, turns 13 this next week. Pray for me, please pray hard for me. He just started the 7th grade, hormones are kicking in. I am having these conversations with him I never, ever had. Here’s the thing. Up until this point in my life he’s rarely ever been in here. He’s been in the kid’s classroom. Now he is in here. So now not only do I have my wife listening to me, but I have my son listening to me kind of keeping me in check. Here’s the thing. I don’t want my son to see me stand up here and see a stranger on the stage that he doesn’t see at home. I’m just telling you. And I’m asking you to pray for me. I’m asking you to keep me accountable. What good is it for me to have a nice, long healthy ministry here trying to help this church of hundreds and hundreds trying to know Jesus if I can’t even develop disciples in my own home? And really, where it starts is… I can’t control my son. If he wants to reject God, that’s his own choice—whenever he gets to that age. Some of you parents did everything right and your kids still rejected Jesus because the heart is a really deceptive thing. I just don’t want to give him any unnecessary reasons. I don’t want him to say, “My dad was a fake.” No, I want him to say, “My dad isn’t perfect but he knew Jesus and he modeled that at home.”



Can I just speak to the men in this room for a second? Guys, this has to start at home. Guys, when Jesus said, “Go and make disciples,” He was not talking to the paid professional staff of a church. He was talking to you. And it begins at home with your wife and your kids. That’s your mission field. That’s your ministry. That’s your church. And you’ve got to lead the way in that. No, leading the way does not mean, “My way or the highway.” Leading the way means, “I’ll lay down my life for you. I’ll model Jesus so it’s easier for you to grow to know Jesus better.” I’ve talked to guys before… I’m really looking forward to our men’s conference in October. I want to urge you to signup. We’ve already got 300 to 400 guys signed up. I would like to see over 1,000 there because we need this. We need to talk to the hearts of men. I’ve talked to guys before and they’ll get really macho and they’ll be like, “I’d die for my wife and kids.” I’m like, “What does that mean?” “Well, if a robber broke into our house, I’d take a bullet for them.” And I just want to go, “When will that ever happen?” Maybe it could happen but it’s kind of like this idea that a robber’s going to break in and you’re going to go all Neo from the Matrix on them? It sounds like a nice thought. They’ll say to their wife and kids, “I would die for you.” And I’m telling you right now. She doesn’t really care. Because what are the odds of a robber breaking into the house and shooting a bullet at her and you taking the bullet for her? What does it really matter if you’d say you’d die for her if you aren’t going to die to your anger, if you aren’t going to die to your workaholism, if you aren’t going to die to your addiction to porn? What does it matter if, hypothetically, a robber breaks into the house and shoots a bullet at your wife? She needs you to die to some things. So make disciples at home. This doesn’t mean you’ve got to be a theology major. This doesn’t mean you’ve got to be a preacher. It doesn’t even mean you’ve got to be perfect. It just means you’ve got to be authentic. And say, “I’m messed up. I’m trying to lean into Jesus. Would you extend me grace as I am trying to lead our family there?” Wives, prop him up and help him. Help him to lead, encourage him to lead. What if you were to take all of the effort you are investing into managing your image and you started putting it to work to develop your character? What would happen? Here’s the second thing you can pray. Write this down: God, make me attentive to the needs of others rather than being absorbed with my own. Isn’t this just the definition of maturity? That when we are immature we are absorbed with our own needs. But as we mature we slowly begin to become attentive to the needs of other people. If we just got this one thing right I guarantee your relationships would get better. If we got this one thing right your marriage would get better. If we got this one thing right our church would become even more of a people magnet for Jesus. Why? Because we live in a very self-‐absorbed society and people aren’t expecting others to be attentive to their needs. I know some of you even right now are pushing back on me. You are arguing with me in your minds, which is the beauty of a sermon. You can argue with me if you want. You don’t have to agree. Some of you are going, “If I pay attention to the needs of others, who will pay attention to mine?” That’s a really good question. It’s a really honest question. And a really honest answer is, “You don’t have any guarantee that anyone will.”



Wives, you don’t have a guarantee that if you pay attention to your husband he will reciprocate. Husbands, you don’t have the guarantee that if you pay attention to the needs of your wives that she will reciprocate. Parents, you don’t have the guarantee that if you pay attention to the needs of your teenagers that they will reciprocate. And Jesus didn’t have any guarantee when He died on the cross that you would reciprocate either. That’s the definition of maturity. But there is hope. Jesus said in Matthew 6, “Your Father, who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” Listen man, as long as people are your audience you’ll never find the motivation to pay attention to their needs. God has to be your audience. And God says to us, “Listen, I’m paying attention. Your wife might not be paying attention. Your kids might not be paying attention. Your boss may not be paying attention. The people you sit next to at church might not be paying attention. But I am and one day I will reward you for that which was done in secret,” meaning, “Nobody else knew it, but I knew it.” And God said in Revelation that He’s keeping track of every tear you shed and He’s putting it in a bottle and He is labeling it and He’s putting it up in a corner. And one day there’s going to be this really intimate moment between you and your Maker, when God pulls down that bottle of tears and says, “Alright let’s go through these. You didn’t think I was paying attention, did you?” And He’s going to make right everything that went wrong. In the same way, He’ll say, “I saw what you did in secret. Nobody else gave you any applause for that. But listen, great is your reward in heaven and I’m going to reward you right now.” You see one of the things we like to say around here, as a staff, is, “This church exists primarily for those who are not yet here.” And that doesn’t mean that those of you who are here, we overlook your needs. That’s not what we want. We’re not saying that your needs are unimportant. We are simply saying we cannot take our eyes off the mission. There is a whole world out there facing a Christless eternity and the mission of the church is to seek and to save the lost and then to make disciples of all nations. And we can’t just have a bunch of people who come and say, “We’ll watch you do that.” We’ve got to have people who are mobilized to do it. When people are mobilized to do it, God will blow the roof off this thing. So here is a little phrase we just say, and every time we say this as a staff we know what we mean: Others first. Others first. We’ll pay attention to their needs. We’ll follow the sacrifice Jesus made on a cross and we’ll put their needs over our own. What we desire to have is a church that is leaning into Jesus. All of us are broken and imperfect, but we are a mature church. When I say mature church it doesn’t have anything to do with biological age. You can be physically or biologically young and you can be spiritually mature. And, sadly, you can be biologically older and spiritually immature. Time going to church does not automatically make you a more mature Christian. It’s a softness of heart. And sadly, as I grow older I am beginning to face this, oftentimes our hearts can just get crustier, and angrier, and mean spirited. You see, immature people take; mature people give. Immature people ask, “Hey man. Is it fun?” Mature people ask, “How can I help?” Immature people are all-‐in as long as it’s all entertaining. Mature people are all-‐in until they finish what they start. Immature people are all about self-‐indulgence, mature people are all about sacrificial love. Immature people expect others to provide what they lack, mature people see where something is lacking and provide. Immature people consume, mature people produce.



You see, mature people seek the applause of God over the accolades of men. And all of us are susceptible to this. I am susceptible to it. I want people to like me. I want people to say, “Good job.” And that’s why I can get 20 really, really positive emails saying, “Atta boy. Way to go Aaron, appreciate you so much,” and I’ll get one email that comes in like a hand grenade. And guess what email will keep me up at night? Guess what email I’ll think about all day long? Any of you with me in this? We focus on the negative. Why do we do that? Well because the accolades of men mean too much to us. But see the accolades of men fall away. And we’ve got to let God be our audience. Here’s what I want you to do. It’s a very simple application. Go find someone this week and serve them in hiddenness and let God be your audience. If you ever find yourself feeling bored with church services, here’s how you make it an adventure ever single week. Ask God to put somebody in front of you who needs to be loved and then look for Him. I guarantee He’ll place you behind somebody who needs to be loved and needs to have Jesus modeled. Be on mission with us. Drop the consumer mindset. Drop your personal preferences. Drop the act. You’re not fooling anybody anyway. He must increase. I must decrease until it is Christ alone. You want to know the antidote for this? It is stop pretending and start imitating. Imitate the very nature of Jesus Christ who went to a cross. And when He went to a cross He outed us on the cross and He said, “You don’t have to pretend any longer. That’s the freedom of grace. You are free. I love you as you are.” And now go and imitate who Jesus is to others. Listen, if this world stands a chance of hearing the good news and believing the good news it’s from a church that not only knows what it believes and refuses to compromise it, but it’s a church that is going to live it authentically. And may we be that church. We’re going to take communion together and we’re going to sing one more song. May the Spirit of God work in our hearts. Father, we come to You right now. Thank You for this time together. Thank You for this challenging passage. God, if there is anybody in here like me, and I suspect there are, every single week when I come in here I’m discouraged about something or maybe there’s something that’s bothered me and I just need to be encouraged. God I pray that through this sermon today that somebody was encouraged. Somebody needs their wounds bounded up. But I also know, God, that sometimes I need a good kick in the pants. I need to be challenged. The word for that is convicted. And God I pray that we were also convicted, simultaneously by Your Spirit, encouraged and convicted because we need to be bound up by Your Spirit. We need to be healed. But we also need to be pushed, we need to be challenged because the mission is urgent, time is drawing near. We live in a world that has lost their minds. So God we need to lean into You all the more. God, make us that kind of church. We want to be imitators, not pretenders. And we ask this in Jesus’ name and the church said, “Amen.”

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